Ax Water Authority, member's wife says

Marilyn Bainter calls the county board outdated and unnecessary, but its supporters beg to differ.

February 15, 2006|By Ramsey Campbell, Sentinel Staff Writer

TAVARES -- Marilyn Bainter, wife of Lake County Water Authority member Stan Bainter, has issued a call to have the water board dissolved.

"Less government is better," said Marilyn Bainter, who called the water authority redundant and unnecessary.

She said the Water Authority is a special taxing district, created in 1953 to build a series of locks and dams along Haynes Creek and the Palatlakaha River for flood control, and should have been abolished decades ago when that project was finished.

The Water Authority has been under attack for years, usually from Republican interests. In 2000, Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation that reshaped it from a panel with three members appointed by the governor to one with seven chosen by voters in nonpartisan elections.

Most recently, GOP interests forced a referendum, planned for this fall, on whether the authority should be elected in partisan elections -- this in spite of the fact that all the authority members are Republican, with the exception of one member who lists no party affiliation.

Lake County is overwhelmingly Republican, and the vast majority of public offices are held by members of the GOP.

Supporters of the Water Authority say Marilyn Bainter's call is yet another attack on a board critical to preserving Lake County's natural resources. However, she said she has no objection to the authority's work. It's just that it is an out-of-date bureaucracy with no clear purpose, she said.

She said that over the years, the Water Authority has gone into a number of different directions: buying environmentally sensitive land for preservation, building the Hickory Point recreational facility in Tavares, testing water for toxic algae, cleaning up water flowing into other lakes in the Harris chain from Lake Apopka and dredging canals along Lake Griffin.

"I don't have a problem with what they have done," Marilyn Bainter said. "For example, their land-acquisition program was good -- but it wasn't their job."

She said the county has a land-purchase program and a parks department, and said the St. Johns River Water Management District is responsible for water quality and that the health department should be responsible for toxic algae.

But she said she was disturbed about the Water Authority's funding of fishing tournaments. If necessary, money for tournaments should come from the county's tourist or economic-development programs.

By abolishing the Water Authority, the public could benefit by the reduced bureaucracy by having the programs operated by county and state agencies, she said.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time," Bainter said.

She said she initially wrote a letter addressed to local legislators in mid-December but didn't mail it until last month. Then last week she wrote an appeal to the Lake County Republican Founders Club, asking members to take up the issue, but she hasn't heard back.

Stan Bainter, a former state representative who had to give up that seat in 2000 because of term limits, would not discuss abolishing the Water Authority but in the past has applauded the proposed change to partisan Water Authority elections. He also pushed for switching from an appointed to an elected body when he was in the Legislature.

Marilyn Bainter said that while her husband is on the authority, he will support its continuation. His term on the board, which pays members $25 for each monthly meeting, ends this year.

"It is my little battle," Marilyn Bainter said.

Although Stan Bainter, a Republican from Eustis, is the politician in the family, Marilyn ran in the Republican primary for a County Commission seat in 1990. She lost.

Nadine Foley, a longtime environmentalist from Umatilla and chairwoman of Lake County's Public Land Acquisition Advisory Council, was critical of Marilyn Bainter for applauding the authority's work yet calling for its dissolution.

Former state legislator and current Water Authority member Everett Kelly of Lady Lake said neither the county nor the state possesses the resources to protect Lake's waterways. He said eliminating the authority would be a "bad, bad mistake."

Nancy Fullerton, a Water Authority member from the Clermont area, said she was disheartened, but not surprised, by the renewed push to eliminate the authority.

"There's always been a certain element that wants to do away with the water authority," Fullerton said. "The threat has always lurked overhead."

She said the authority has tried to appease its enemies by expanding its members, going to a system of electing members and now having a referendum on partisan races.